Video: What Place for the Referendum in the UK?

11 March 2013

Venue: Archaeology Lecture Theatre G6, Gordon House

The referendum is an instrument of popular
sovereignty, an institutional expression of the doctrine that political
sovereignty derives from the people. In Britain, it has been used on a
small range of issues, primarily to secure legitimacy. Some matters,
especially those which involve a transfer of sovereignty, are so
fundamental that the public may not accept a decision made by parliament
alone as legitimate. In the 1970s, it has been suggested, Edward Heath
took the British establishment into Europe, but it was left to Harold
Wilson to bring the British people into Europe. Today, the establishment
continues to favour membership, the people do not. That is the basic
case for an `in-out' referendum.

One difficulty with the referendum is that the question is decided by
the politicians, not by the voters. The questionthat the voters wish to
answer may not be on the ballot paper. In 2011, survey evidence
indicated that the favoured option for most electoral reformers was
proportional representation, not the alternative vote. Yet that option
was not on the ballot paper. In Scotland, survey evidence indicates that
further devolution is the favoured option rather than the status quo or
independence. Yet that option is not to be on the ballot paper. On
Europe. David Cameron proposes a referendum on renegotiated terms of
membership, but survey evidence indicates that people favour an in/out
referendum. Some means, therefore, should be found for taking the
referendum out of the hands of the politicians.

Prof Vernon Bogdanor CBE will is Professor of Government at the
Institute of Contemporary History, King’s College, London. He was
formerly for many years Professor of Government at Oxford University. He
is a Fellow of the British Academy, Honorary Fellow of the Institute
for Advanced Legal Studies, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social
Sciences.